The Auswine Forum

Was in the real Shiraz today, an Iranian city now, but formerly part of the Persian Empire and mythical home of shiraz and the locals say....

Shee-Raz.

Pronunciation more akin to the Barossa twang than the Hunter toff!

sounds texas to me

Heh I stumbled upon this post looking for notes on the ADW release of same name, that is, their Sheeraz. The 1999 was brilliant at under $20, so I wonder how the 2000 is drinking?

Unless its real plonk, in which case its called "sh*traz."

Having a great time in SA and there are some wonderful wines coming down the track so start saving.

I thought it had been established that it was unlikely the Shiraz/Syrah grape actually came from the village if Shiraz. If so, doesnt the pronunciation question remain unanswered?

AB

Give over, everyone who is anyone knows it is really pronounced....



SHURASS

Wizz wrote:I thought it had been established that it was unlikely the Shiraz/Syrah grape actually came from the village if Shiraz. If so, doesnt the pronunciation question remain unanswered?

AB

According to DNA analysis done at Univ California at Davis and in France Shiraz as a cross between two rather undistinguished grape varieties - Mondeuse Blanche and Dureza. Dureza is from the northern Ardeche region west of the Rhone Valley. Mondeusa Blanche comes from the Savoie region. The earliest recorded plantings of Shiraz in France date back to about 500BC.

Shiraz/syrah was introduced into Australia by James Busby in 1832.

Mike

Thanks for the DNA info' KMP. It'd be great to know where you picked this up from and whether your source included othe "classic" varietie; such as Pinot noir being a cross between Gewurztraminer and something else (was it Gouais blanc?) and Chardonnay having gouais as a dam.

Always thought that Cab. franc was a lesser selection fo C. sauvignon and mitochondrail DNA reveals that it is the other way around!

I'm not sure about the 500BC bit though, or at least when concerning winemaking.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the DNA info' KMP. It'd be great to know where you picked this up from and whether your source included othe "classic" varietie; such as Pinot noir being a cross between Gewurztraminer and something else (was it Gouais blanc?) and Chardonnay having gouais as a dam.

Always thought that Cab. franc was a lesser selection fo C. sauvignon and mitochondrail DNA reveals that it is the other way around!

I'm not sure about the 500BC bit though, or at least when concerning winemaking.

A lot of the DNA analysis, at least in the USA has been done by Carole Meredith, a Professor at the UC Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology. She retired in 2003. She has been credited with sorting out the parentage of Cabernet in 1997 and Chardonnay and Syrah in 1999, and most recently Zinfandel. See here for some commentary on the latter. The publication on Cabernet is easy to find (see here) as its in a first class scientific journal. The peer reviewed and published work on syrah and chardonnay is a little harder to find, at least as appropriately titled studies. I'm currently trying to get reprints of all of her published genetic studies. If you Google search the web you wil find numerous links to the work on syrah/shiraz and also petite syrah (a distinct variety but long considered to be syrah by many) and so it seems to be widely accepted but perhaps I should have prefaced my previous post with the caveat that I have not yet read the published studies.

Mike

Syrah/Shiraz didn't come from the village of Shiraz at all. See link below for article on the DNA testing etc.

http://pweb.netcom.com/~lachenm/month/02/01.html


Bill